Please be aware that studying this novel could be very obligatory for candidates who’re getting ready for Joint Admission & Matriculation Examination (JAMB), 2017 Examination.
Though you may learn the short summary of the novel however we are going to recommend you to make sure that you learn this complete abstract as this may make it easier a lot in your exam.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR (SARAH LADIPO MANYINKA)
(1) The creator ORIGIN
Sarah Ladipo was born and raised in Nigeria (NG). She has additionally lived in Kenya , France, and England. Her father is Nigerian and her mom is British. Sarah inherited her maiden title (Ladipo) from her father who was born in Ibadan (South West Nigeria) within the late 1930s. Sarah’s father met and married her mom within the UK within the late 1960s. She spent a lot of her childhood in Lagos and town of Jos in Plateau State. As a younger teenager, Sarah lived for two years in Nairobi, Kenya, earlier than her household moved to the UK.
(2) The creator EDUCATIONAL background
She studied on the Universities of Birmingham (UK), Bordeaux (France), and Berkeley (California).
(3) The creator FAMILY life
She married in Harare, Zimbabwe, in 1994 and now divides her time between San Francisco (the place she teaches literature at San Francisco State College), London and Harare.
(4) The creator NOVEL
Her writing contains revealed essays, educational papers, e-book critiques and quick tales. Sarah’s first novel, In Dependence, was revealed by Legend Press in 2008. Her quick story “Mr Wonder” appeared within the 2008 assortment Girls Writing Zimbabwe.
Sarah’s novel In Dependence was chosen by the UK’s largest bookstore chain as its featured e-book for Black Historical past Month. In 2009, In Dependence, was revealed by Cassava Republic, a literary press based mostly in Abuja, Nigeria, with a secure of authors that features Teju Cole and Helon Habila.
ABOUT THE BOOK IN DEPENDENCE (SARAH LADIPO MANYIKA)
“InDependence” was revealed within the UK in 2008, in Nigeria in 2009 and within the US in 2011. It’s Sarah Ladipo Manyika’s first novel.
The novel begins within the early 1960s when Tayo Ajayi meets Vanessa Richardson, the gorgeous daughter of an ex-colonial officer. Their story, which spans three continents and 4 turbulent a long time, is that of a courageous however bittersweet love affair. It’s the story of people struggling to search out their place inside unsure political instances – a narrative of ardour and idealism, braveness and betrayal.
In Dependence will be described as a love story. However it’s greater than that. It traces the trajectory of Nigeria’s political historical past; the navy coups, the dangerous and treacherous management, and its renewed tentative steps in direction of democracy.
It speaks to the demise – within the 1980s – of Nigeria’s worldwide status and the nation’s quickly destabilizing actuality. It seems to be on the poor whose state of affairs by no means improved however really worsened.
Utilizing occasions in Tayo’s life, it describes the consequences of misrule on the nation’s universities and the following huge mind drain that Africa skilled.
Sarah Manyika achieves all this with a voice and an outlook that’s really genuine and goal.
The creator captures the temper and really feel of totally different a long time and the three continents – Africa, Europe and America – that function settings for the story. Its scope is huge and sweeping.
THE INTENSIVE REVIEW ON THE NOVEL IN DEPENDENCE (SARAH LADIPO MANYIKA)
Sarah Ladipo Manyika novel which showcases the love affair of two main characters (Tayo and Vanessa) begins with these lines:
It is the early-sixties (1963 to be precise) when a young Tayo Ajayi sails to England from Nigeria to take up a scholarship at Oxford University. Nigeria has been independent from British colonial rule for just 3 years and Tayo is part of the newly educated generation eager to take up educational opportunities abroad so that they can return to their country and help it become successful. With high hopes for the future of Nigeria and confident in his own ability to make a difference, Tayo throws himself into Oxford life, but a romantic attachment to a white English girl, Vanessa, derails his plans. In this city of dreaming spires, he finds himself among a generation, high on visions of a new and better world. The whole world seems ablaze with change: independence at home, the Civil Rights movement and the first tremors of cultural and sexual revolutions. It is then that Tayo meets Vanessa Richardson, the beautiful daughter of an ex-colonial officer and a racist. When they first meet, Tayo and Vanessa are drawn to each other, him to her because she’s different than women he knows in Nigeria; her to him because she seems to have a fascination with all things from the continent of Africa.
As their relationship progresses, it seems that her love for him is also rooted in antagonizing her conservative, colonialist father who is also a racist. Their love affair faces lots of challenges with racism as its major challenge. It could not survive the pressure of racism from passersby, policemen and especially Vanessa’s father who is a self proclaimed racist.
Tayo also worries about whether his own family will accept Vanessa, and whether she will be able to live in African society. On her part, Vanesa begins to wonder if she is simply something for Tayo to do until he meets a Nigerian woman, as she has witnessed with friends of his.
Many of the problems, however, are of their own making – they hold back from saying what they feel, they miscommunicate, misunderstand, lash out and they are unfaithful. Then, fate and politics intervene at crucial points – as Tayo is about to propose, he gets a telegram saying his father is dying and he has to return to Nigeria. Tayo leaves England with every intention of returning to Vanessa but first, he is delayed by his father’s illness and then a military coup. Much later, he is about to visit Vanessa in England but is arrested on his way to the airport. Consequently, Tayo resigns himself to staying in Nigeria and marrying a local woman.
Vanessa hopes for two things: marry Tayo and return to Nigeria with him and also become a respected journalist.
Unfortunately, things didn’t happen the way she has hoped and due to circumstances beyond her control (and her stubbornness in some part) she ends up marrying an older white man and adopting the child of a Senegalese friend. She does, however, become the respected journalist that she has hoped to be.
Tayo later meets with Vanessa many years later and this meeting provides him with an opportunity to rekindle his romance with her, but just like their earlier encounters, it feels stiff and wooden.
Tayo and Vanessa end up living their lives independent of each other but no matter what they did, and where they were, the thoughts and love they had for each other lingered on (even though the other didn’t necessarily know). I guess love really does stand the test of time.
Role of Some Characters
1. Tayo
Tayo is the protagonist/main character of the novel. He is an intelligent man but he always seems to do wrong. He tries to do the right thing, never wants to hurt anyone but in the end he does, especially the women in his life – and there are quite a number of women in his life that he hurts.
2. Vanessa
Vanessa, on the other hand, dreams of being a journalist writing on African issues, marrying Tayo and moving with him to Nigeria to start a new life. Unfortunately life gets in the way and a host of things prevent most of her dreams from coming true. She does end up achieving one of her dreams – being a world renowned journalist on African issues.
3. Christine
Christine is the Nigerian woman that first caught Tayo’s eye. Christine is shown as an opinionated woman that does not shy away from engaging men in intellectual conversation.
However, this character is killed off too quickly in the novel and the reason for her death—suicide, was not very convincing. It was hard to picture Christine as a love struck and defeated woman who would kill herself.
4. Jane
Vanessa’s cousin who is quite outspoken about her sexual encounter.
5. Vanessa’s Father
He was a colonial master in Nigeria before 1960. He is against Tayo marrying his daughter and has refused to accept Vanessa’s adopted half-cast son. He seemed more racial against half-casts earlier in the novel confronting Tayo about his fears for a half-cast grandchild. It was later understood that his hatred for the blacks was as a result of an affair his wife had with a black man during the colonial era.
Discussion of the Predominant Theme
Although love exists as a theme in this novel, the theme that runs through the novel is racism, consequently making it a predominant theme. Sarah Manyika showcases this theme in different forms.
During Tayo’s life as a part time lecturer in Sans Francisco, Manyika used a scene to unbolt some deeper issues of racism. She pointed out the racist ties between the African American and the pure African. These issues she raised apply everywhere even within Nigerians. A Yoruba would refer to an Igbo as a greedy money monger and dubious monster, and in turn the Igbo would refer to the Yoruba as a dirty, loquacious and foolish personality who spend all he earns on parties and alcohol. It had to be understood that racism was one those existences that would live for a long time as far as misunderstanding between people existed.
There are also lines that are coated with humour in this novel but could be called racial remarks. Young black Yusuf came clean in his conversation with Tayo. He said white women were for sex treats while black women were for decent relationships that could lead to marriage. He added that a white woman looked so old when she turned thirty. This in its entirety showcases the idea of racism.
The battle against Tayo and Vanessa’s love is instigated by racism with Vanessa’s father as the instigator. He is the worst racist in this book. He was a colonial master in Nigeria before 1960. He is against Tayo marrying his daughter and has refused to accept Vanessa’s adopted half-cast son. He seemed more racial against half-casts earlier in the novel confronting Tayo about his fears for a half-cast grandchild. It is later understood that his hatred for the blacks is as a result of an affair his wife had with a black man during the colonial era. Manyika, whose picture shows she is perhaps a half-cast, is able to make a point here. She draws a difference between being black and being a half-cast (brown). This would have been quite a storm for her to write about because of the racial wind against the brown people living in whitely dominated regions. In contrast to a pure black country, half-casts are seen as beautiful which Manyika failed to point out. In fact in the black continent, the typical black man may feel inferior to a half-cast.
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